In this episode Archer tries to prove what is going on to the Xindi by showing them the bodies of the Reptilians he killed in Earth's past. The Xindi-Arboreal claims that Archer may just as easily have captured them in the present so this is no proof at all. However, in "Damage" the female sphere builder openly admitted that she sent those Reptillians into the past to make the bio-weapon. So what's the Xindi on about?

Great Moment :

Have to mention Connor Trinneer here, he does an amazing job as Trip finally coming to terms with his sister's death.

Body Count :

We hear of eighteen dead from the battle in Azati Prime; an unknown number of Xindi-Reptilians are killed when Degra destroys their ship.

Factoid :

The Engineer who Trip snaps at is Seth MacFarlane; a fan of Enterprise, MacFarlane is the creator of "Family Guy" and voices many of the characters on the show.

Trip points out to Degra that a thousand or more starships like Enterprise could blow up an entire planet.

Plotline

Archer reaches the rendezvous with Degra and presents his evidence, leading to a tentative alliance with some of the Xindi council. Meanwhile the crew is still struggling to repair the damaged ship, and Trip is forced to finally come to terms with the loss of his sister.

Analysis

A pretty by-the-numbers episode which advances the arc without doing anything really significant about it; Archer has two allies on the Xindi ruling council now, and they are planning to approach the Aquatics to try and establish a majority in their favour. You have to wonder whether the Insectoids and Reptilians would really back down just because they are outvoted - are we going to see a Xindi civil war?

Really though, this episode is about Trip and T'Pol. Connor Trinneer is amazing as Trip; he's been in denial about his sister's death ever since it happened, and it finally bubbled over when he has to write a letter to the parents of a young female engineer killed at Azati Prime. It was a little regrettable that we had never seen the woman before, so we just have to accept how important she was to Trip at face value. It would have been more powerful if they could have used a recurring minor character, somebody where we knew there was a history there without having to just be told about it, but really this is a minor quibble.

We get an explanation for T'Pol's erratic behaviour over the last six months or so; she's been injecting herself with Trellium-D to provoke emotions. This was a less convincing storyline - it smacked of something that was thought up to explain the erratic writing of the character, rather than having been thought out in advance. Still, at least it does explain T'Pol's very un-Vulcan behaviour in a reasonable way. It will be interesting to re-watch this season at some point armed with the full story.